


A Smile to Outshine the Sun

by MFM



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Light Angst, One Shot, Reflection, Surprise Party, Takami Chika's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 12:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20064364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MFM/pseuds/MFM
Summary: Chika Takami had nothing.At least, that was what she had thought until a few short months ago.





	A Smile to Outshine the Sun

For much of her life, Chika Takami had nothing she could call her own.

That wasn’t to say she had nothing at all; after all, she had a loving family and supportive friends. But a lot of her family either wasn’t around very often or, for as much as she knew they loved her, would treat her latest interest with teasing dismissal. And while her friends supported her as best they could, their unrelenting drive towards their own goals or the ease with which they picked up anything they put their mind to stood in stark contrast to her own inability to commit to a single passion.

Within the past few months though, she’d found something she thought was truly hers, in the form of the school idol group Aqours. With all the friends she’d made and the experiences they’d shared, she was almost sure she’d finally committed to something. But occasionally those doubts reared their head once more, and on that particular day, as she slid the door to the Aqours club room open, she felt them nagging away at every corner of her mind.

The instant she stepped inside however, the sound of party poppers greeted her ears, snapping her to attention. Her eyes glided over the room in search of what was going on, subsiding her self-doubt for at least a moment, and as they landed on the banner hanging over the center of the room, it and the voices of the other Aqours members declared to her as one,

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHIKA!”

Although that exclamation stopped her search for a moment, her gaze resumed wandering after a brief pause. Chika took her sweet time processing every individual decoration that now adorned the club room. She felt like she stared at each one for an eternity, and while she doubted that much time actually passed, the look of concern that started to spread among the other members of Aqours told her that a sizable amount of time passed regardless.

The more she took in the space around her, the more those thoughts of inadequacy and not belonging started to melt away. She felt a wave of heat flush over her face, embarrassed that she ever entertained the notion of not belonging. It was then in her mind that she decided, once and for all, that Aqours was where she belonged, and she wouldn’t trade any of its other members for the world.

But if all that was true, why did tears keep welling up in her eyes?

“Chika?!” Riko cried out, being the first to notice and rushing to her side. That cry brought the other girls to full attention, and the look of concern that they shared became one of panic in an instant. Most of them followed the redhead’s lead, huddling around their friend and calling to her or asking what was wrong.

The two to hesitate in approaching her were Dia and Mari, the student council president turning to her blonde friend and saying with a sigh, “I told you this could end badly.”

Although Mari’s expression initially echoed that sentiment, her features quickly loosened, giving way to a more contented countenance. She winked at her compatriot and replied, “I wouldn’t say this was a failure quite yet,” before stepping forward and joining the congregation surrounding their leader.

Mari’s movement drew Dia’s attention back to her other friends, and while the first thing to catch her eye was just how tightly huddled they were around the birthday girl, she couldn’t help but notice Chika’s expression in the center of it all. The tears that had been welling up in her eyes now fell without any regard for her attempts to wipe them away. In spite of that, a wide smile adorned her face as she unconvincingly assured everyone around her that she was totally fine, nothing was wrong. That grin assuaged Dia’s concerns ever so slightly, at least enough so that she finally stepped into the crowd.

“Sorry for worrying you guys,” Chika repeated for what felt like the millionth time, letting slip a light laugh as she did so. “I was just caught a bit off guard. I appreciate this, really.”

Her friends exchanged split-second glances amongst themselves, and although most of them weren’t quite convinced, Ruby was the first to ask, “Are you sure you’re alright, Chika?”

The birthday girl nodded, but before she could vocalize a further response, Yoshiko pursued the inquiry with a declaration of, “You mustn’t lie to your master, the great fallen angel Yohane, o little demon.” Using one hand to cover one of her eyes and pointing at Chika with the other, she continued, “For my minions must always be performing their utmost to help in my conquer of–“

“Not the time,” Kanan interrupted, cutting the great fallen angel Yohane’s monologue short with a chop to the head. While it didn’t actually hurt that much, the shock of her dramatic exclamation being interrupted stunned Yoshiko silent, at least for long enough for Kanan to ask, “So, everything’s okay?”

Although Chika had been tirelessly wiping away her tears throughout the whole affair, only now was she finally making progress in abetting them. She looked at Kanan as best she could with red, puffy eyes and reaffirmed her feelings with one more nod. “Yeah. I’m just not used to this kind of thing, so I wasn’t sure how to process it at first. Sorry for making such a scene.”

“Nonsense!” Mari replied instantly, the trill in her voice drawing all eyes to her. “You’re the birthday girl, you’re allowed to make as much of a scene as you want! Now, what say we get this birthday party kicked off nice and proper?”

The girls around the blonde weren’t quite so gung ho, waiting to see how Chika would respond. However, she hardly even noticed their hesitation, raising a fist in the air and declaring, “Yeah, let’s!”

The congregation around Aqours’s leader was slow to respond, but it eventually did so, the first and third years being the first to break away and spread throughout the room. As they stepped away, Ruby inched closer to Kanan and said in a hushed voice, “You shouldn’t be too harsh on Yoshiko. She was just trying to show her concern in her own way.”

The third year nodded her understanding, which Hanamaru took as a cue to add with a sly grin, “She was slaving away on that cake all night, after all.”

“Silence, Zuramaru,” Yoshiko snapped, though without the usual conviction with which she usually did so. “Little demons mustn’t be privy to the machinations of their master.”

Although Riko and You had been more hesitant in parting from Chika, the banter of their friends didn’t escape them, and they shared a small laugh over it. They took that as their cue to join the fray, but before they could do so, they each felt someone grab them by the hand. They looked over to their fellow second year, her head down and her hands extended to grab theirs, and in sync they asked, “Chika?”

“Really, thank you both. For everything.” She looked up at them, exposing to them her newfound expression. Bloodshot though her eyes may still have been, they were now bright and beaming. But even that light paled in comparison to her other features, for plastered across her face was a smile bright enough to outshine the sun itself, vanquishing any shadows of doubts that may have lingered. Such was her radiance that Riko and You each reflected her grin without a second thought, and as she looked around the room to everyone else she continued, “I wouldn’t be who I am without Aqours, and Aqours wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you two. Thank you so much.”

“Come on, Chika,” You answered, giving her trademark wink and salute. “How long have I been with you? With how often you’ve done whatever you could to help me out, it’s only natural I’d return the favor.”

Riko needed to take an extra second to let her response stew in her head, a second offered to her by You answering first. That moment being all she needed, she put her hand to her chest and stated, “I should be thanking you. I didn’t know what to expect when moving to Uchiura, but meeting you and joining Aqours made me feel like I belonged. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t met you.”

Chika’s hands drew away from her friends’, quickly enough to be as if on reflex as she put her arms behind her head. With a sheepish laugh she said, “Come on you guys, I’m trying to express my thanks. You shouldn’t try to turn it around and make it all about me.”

Riko and You shared a brief glance of bemusement before chuckling.

“Sorry, but can you really blame us?”

“It is _your_ birthday, after all.”

“Oh, I guess that’s true,” Chika said, her face newly overcome with shock. That surprise quickly subsided though, giving way to a cheery expression once more, and as she stepped closer to the center of the room, she continued, “In that case, I guess we should stop standing around and actually enjoy this party!”

“Yeah!” cheered her fellow second years. Those cheers roused the other members of Aqours to attention, and despite having been absorbed in their own conversations at that point, they were quick to add their own cheers into the fray.

“But first,” came Dia’s voice, cutting through the chorus of the other girls’ voices, “we didn’t quite start this celebration off on the right foot. How about we start over?”

Although the curtness of her declaration threw everyone off balance for a split second, her intent came through loud and clear. That split second passed, and once more, members two through nine of Aqours came together in a line and joined hands, facing member number one. This time she greeted their impending declaration with an effervescent grin, and as one they took in a deep breath and exclaimed,

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHIKA!”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh wow, I finally posted another story. It's only been like 2 years.
> 
> Chika's basically my favorite character period, so a lot of my time writing this was actually just agonizing over whether I was doing a good job portraying why I love her to death.
> 
> I still don't think I did a perfect job of that, but I'm satisfied enough with where this story ended up, and better to paint an imperfect picture than to never finish one.


End file.
